A few weeks later, the rest of the bounty hunters finally arrived with haggard expressions from the long journey. They had first gathered in Saffron City, then moved to Cerulean. Finally, they marched as a group toward Mt. Moon, where they were ambushed by a band of Expert ranked trainers led by an Elite who was looking to score some product.
They barely managed to fend off the assault with their lives intact, only to spend the following days fighting through one Elite ranked nest after another until they finally reached the base.
There were over a hundred of them in total, most at Expert rank, led by three Elite ranked trainers who commanded their respective factions. At the front was Dale, leading his group of semi-disabled trainers in the vanguard. In the center marched Simone, overseeing the largest contingent with more than seventy members. At the rear was Morgan and her girls, who preferred to keep their distance from the rest.
"That's the place, right?" Dale asked as he conferred with Morgan and Simone atop the western mountain overlooking Clearstone Valley.
"It's the only complete building in the entire area, so yes, I'd say that's it," Simone replied.
"Well, whoever our mysterious employer is, at least they're rich," Morgan remarked. "That building looks like it's made from the same material as the Gyms, which can probably withstand Champion ranked attacks. And it's easily four times larger. He must've spent over a hundred million credits on the place."
"He's our benefactor, the one who's been supporting us all these years," Dale said. "He'd have to be wealthy to keep that up."
"What are the chances this is another evil organization?" Morgan joked.
"Slim," Simone replied, "we've made plenty of enemies among those organizations. He'd be a fool to take us in if he had any ill intentions. All that attention would fall on him, and he'd have to placate them."
"I don't know. He might just have a few screws loose," Morgan said. "Only one way to find out."
They continued walking with their group until they reached the front of a massive building that resembled a luxury hotel. There, they were greeted by Lyra and Mika, their commanders, who flanked a man with short blond hair, deep black eyes, and a muscular frame. He stood with a commanding presence and the unmistakable aura of a Champion ranked trainer.
"Welcome to the base," the man said. "My name is Alex and I am a bounty hunter. Normally, I'd be more than happy to invite you all inside, but before that, we'll need to have a battle."
"What do you mean?" Dale asked warily.
"Are you kidding me?" Morgan interjected. "We've been traveling for a month, fending off ambushes from criminal organizations and Elite ranked nests, and you want to start a battle the moment we arrive?"
"Yes," Alex said simply. "Think of it as an initiation. You've made it through the mobs, and now it's time to face the final boss."
"What if we refuse?" Simone asked.
"I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice," he replied, just as the overwhelming aura of over 50 Elite ranked Pokémon flared to life from behind the building. In the time it took for them to release their own Pokémon, they were already surrounded.
"What is the meaning of this? Lyra? Mika?" Morgan shouted angrily.
"You heard the boss," Mika said with a smug grin. "Prove yourselves in battle before you get any more benefits from us."
Without giving them a chance to set up a proper formation, Alex's Pokémon launched their attacks. They bombarded the group with powerful area-of-effect moves that washed over them in a chaotic storm of energy. The slower Pokémon below Expert rank fainted almost immediately, their Protect shields unable to withstand the pressure from opponents two ranks above them.
Their trainers would have been wiped out as well, but they were quick to fall into a defensive formation without needing orders. They hid behind the Expert ranked Pokémon whose Protect had Effect Up +1, ensuring they weren't swept away by the storm.
Of the more than 500 Pokémon they started with, barely 200 remained after the initial clash. That meant only about 200 real fighters among them could contribute meaningfully against Elite ranked opponents.
The bombardment continued in relentless waves, drowning out any attempts at retaliation. Even their guns were useless against the concentrated tide of energy swirling around them.
Soon, their formation began to falter as more Pokémon failed to stay in sync with the Protect rotation, leaving roughly a hundred still standing to defend the group. Only they had the combat experience to endure, while the rest were little more than dead weight.
"This should be about enough," Alex said.
The storm of energy abruptly stopped as Alex's attack team advanced, targeting the remaining Pokémon one at a time. They charged forward, weaving through the group's loose formation as the battle dissolved into a chaotic melee. One by one, the Pokémon were knocked out, while their trainers were subdued by the Crobat couple's swarm using Hypnosis.
Soon, only the faction leaders and their strongest trainers remained conscious, holding a tight formation that Alex couldn't break without taking losses. There were roughly a dozen of them with 50 Pokemon left.
"Well done," Alex said as his Pokémon carefully dragged back those who had fainted or been subdued, clearing the battlefield. "Out of a hundred of you, only a dozen have any business being bounty hunters. The rest need serious training to catch up; otherwise, they'll just end up as another sad story."
"Are you done?" Morgan asked, clearly irritated.
"Almost," Alex replied as he stepped forward. "Now let's see how you personally handle yourselves."
Alex charged toward the front of the formation while his Pokémon continued to pepper the enemy with single target attacks.
Dale stepped forward with his Elite ranked Poliwrath, unleashing a Hydro Pump aimed directly at Alex. Without breaking stride, Aegislash emerged from Alex's shadow and took the hit head-on with King's Shield while Alex pushed him forward. They advanced steadily until the attack petered out and Poliwrath needed to recharge.
By the time Dale could command another move, Alex had already reached the front line, where an Elite ranked Pangoro and Hitmonchan stood ready to intercept him. Just as the two Pokémon were about to strike, Dusknoir and Ceruledge erupted from the shadows with Phantom Force, shattering their Protect shields and knocking them aside.
Alex burst through the gap and closed in on Dale, who stood his ground despite missing an arm and an eye. He swung a desperate haymaker, but Alex caught the blow and shoulder-tossed him to the ground before finishing with a sharp kick that knocked Dale out cold.
From there, Alex turned on Dale's subordinates, who fell just as easily, since their missing limbs made it impossible for them to hold up in close quarters. The same went for Morgan and her girls, who had never taken hand-to-hand combat seriously. Each one went down after a single punch to the gut.
Simone, however, was different. She managed to leave a scratch on Alex's arm with her nails as she fell, proof that she wasn't some damsel in distress. But it wasn't nearly enough. Within moments, all of them were down.
As for their Pokémon, the moment any of them turned to confront Alex, they were either bombarded by the defense team or taken out by the attack team. Despite standing at the center of the enemy formation, Alex managed to eliminate all the trainers while remaining perfectly safe. Granted, he was Champion ranked, but their lack of training in close combat and proper formation tactics was painfully obvious.
"Damn, Alex. What the hell have you been doing while we were off fighting criminals?" Lyra exclaimed.
"Training," Alex replied with a smile.
She could hardly believe that Alex had defeated all their bounty hunters simply because he was Champion ranked. He had dismantled them from the weakest to the strongest before personally finishing the job. It was an insane display of power, tactics, and coordination.
"Well, you'd better teach me, because this was just too much."
"That's exactly why I called this assembly. Now, let's get to work and start finding our spies."
This was why Alex had insisted on a battle. He needed to isolate them from the rest of the group; otherwise, they might try to take a hostage on their way out. It was also a way to establish dominance over the first group of bounty hunters who would represent his organization out in the world. Lastly, it served as an effective way to gauge each individual's combat prowess and streamline their training.
The first to undergo the psychic evaluation were the Elite ranked faction leaders. Dale had lost an arm and an eye to human experimentation. The rest of him would have followed, but he was rescued before any more could be taken. Since then, he had devoted himself to hunting down those who conducted illegal human experimentation, using it as an outlet for his wrath.
Morgan shared the same story as the girls, having been mind controlled into prostitution. Like them, she chose to keep her memories of the ordeal as a reminder of what failure looked like. Unlike them, however, she had developed a mild hatred of men as a result of her trauma.
Then there was Simone, who had shown the greatest composure and grit during the battle.
Just as Alex was about to command Malamar to begin her psychic evaluation, he suddenly lost feeling in his arm.
He looked down and saw purple veins snaking out from the wound Simone had left. He remembered being impressed that she'd managed to break his skin but had thought nothing more of it. Turns out, he'd been poisoned.
"I was wondering when it would take effect," Simone said, rousing from her feigned unconsciousness. "Champion ranked bodies really are in a league of their own. Even my specialized poison takes a few minutes to work."
-----
Support me on Patreon
patreon/babywrath